In the final months of a four-year council term rife with division, a new split has quietly emerged — over the performance of city hall’s top bureaucrat.

Almost two years after politicians hired Art Zuidema as city manager, there’s a tug-of-war on council over how well he’s performed, and whether he should continue in the position.

“It’s almost right down the middle,” one politician said.

Several city hall sources have told The Free Press politicians in a recent closed-door meeting discussed how well Zuidema, a municipal government veteran who’d never held a position atop a city bureaucracy, has performed in London’s top job.

It’s believed the vote ended with a narrow endorsement of Zuidema — but that hasn’t quelled his political critics.

“In my opinion, I don’t know what he does,” one councillor said. “What’s he done?”

That is far from the consensus among London’s 15 politicians.

Others remain satisfied with his work.

One councillor, who didn’t want to be named, says they stood in support of Zuidema despite efforts of some colleagues to sway them into the opposing camp.

Zuidema, that politician said, has been a helpful problem-solver in their dealings with him.

Others disagree, and it doesn’t take a mind-reader to interpret recent comments by Coun. Joe Swan as a sign he’s unhappy with the top bureaucrat.

“There’s only two positions that make or break a community, a mayor and a city manager,” Swan told The Free Press this week in discussing what he says are business­people calling for him to seek the mayor’s chair.

“They’re frustrated, so clearly it’s a leadership issue.”

Among other high-level managers, there’s uncertainty about Zuidema’s standing.

One veteran bureaucrat believes the boss has done a good job since arriving. But Harvey Filger, who recently resigned as city hall’s corporate investment manager, could barely restrain his dislike for Zuidema.

Though he has spoken with calm confidence at times during council meetings, Zuidema often remains quiet in public.

And unlike predecessor Jeff Fielding, who worked to open the lines of communication between city hall and the media, Zuidema is distant. On a recent afternoon, The Free Press e-mailed him seeking comment on Filger’s departure, and it took him two days to send a reply declining comment.

Zuidema also has shown no intention of moving to London, which is fodder for critics. Hired to London away from Hamilton, where he was a senior bureaucrat, Zuidema and his family still live in Brantford.

He declined comment for this story Thursday: “I will not be commenting on performance or personnel matters about any employee in the corporation.”